‘Not Parkhurst!’
‘Yes, and Garvard is probably responsible for giving Woodley that photograph of Sharon Piper, aka Carol Palmer aka Salacia, but he couldn’t have killed her and he couldn’t have killed Gregory Harlow, but he could have organized both murders.’
‘Then we’re back to Reggie Thomas,’ Bliss said triumphantly. ‘Garvard could have ordered Thomas to get rid of Woodley because Woodley was going to confess.’
‘Unlikely,’ Horton answered. ‘Woodley wouldn’t have known the meaning of the word, but he could have screwed up somehow. Or perhaps on reflection Garvard considered Woodley wasn’t up to the job. But I can’t see Thomas doing it for nothing, or Woodley come to that if he’d gone through with it, which means Garvard must have some money from his scams stashed away.’
‘Which Sharon Piper could have been spending,’ Marsden piped up.
‘Possibly,’ said Horton.
Uckfield sat back and scratched his crotch, causing a scowl of disapproval on Bliss’s face. Eames appeared not to notice. ‘So Reggie Thomas attacks Woodley after he leaves the pub, Sholby’s and Hobbs’ alibis are false. Woodley doesn’t see his attacker so when Reggie offers to take him out of hospital, an unsuspecting Woodley goes with him. But Reggie, in a borrowed or nicked car, drops him at the marshes where he leaves him to die. At the crematorium Reggie manages to speak to Sharon, or passes her a message, asking her to meet him later that night at the boatyard. Maybe he claims he has a message from Garvard. She agrees and he stabs her, steals her car and dumps it somewhere.’
Horton said, ‘Perhaps he passed the vehicle on to one of his mates, Sholby or Hobbs, or directly to the garage proprietor, Mellings, who recycles it.’
Bliss chipped in. ‘That seems highly possible given the intelligence we’re gathering.’
Horton frowned in thought. ‘That still doesn’t explain why Woodley’s funeral was arranged for the same day and just before Amelia Willard’s.’
‘Or why Sharon Piper showed up for it,’ added Eames.
But Horton could explain that. ‘It’s unlikely that she was living in this area, although we don’t know that for certain, but if she wasn’t then someone from here knew her whereabouts and told her that Amelia had died and when the funeral was being held.’
‘Gregory Harlow?’ posed Bliss.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Garvard?’ suggested Uckfield.
‘Or someone liaising with him,’ Horton replied. ‘The prison network is very wide.’
‘We’re not back to Marty bloody Stapleton, are we?’ exclaimed Uckfield.
Horton shrugged. ‘It could be one of his contacts.’
Uckfield sniffed in disgust. ‘OK, with Garvard inside and not our killer, although there’s the possibility he engineered Sharon’s death, and if we discount Gregory Harlow for now on account of him being killed himself, an unknown hit man, and Reggie Thomas, who could still be in the frame, who else does that leave?’
‘Harry Foxbury,’ answered Horton. ‘There are still the hours of Salacia’s life unaccounted for between being seen at the crematorium and arriving at the quayside and I don’t think Reggie Thomas would have treated her to lobster and white wine.’
‘And nobody in their right mind would have sex with him,’ Uckfield sneered.
Horton continued. ‘So whoever she met that afternoon could be the person who tipped her off about her aunt’s funeral and who dropped her off at the quay and hasn’t come forward, because either he’s scared of being accused of killing her, or he did kill her. Foxbury could have known Salacia when she was Sharon Piper or Carol Palmer. It’s likely he also knew Ellie Loman. Or there might be another motive for Sharon’s death that we’re currently unaware of.’
‘I bloody hope not,’ Uckfield growled.
Trueman said, ‘We’ve cleared Kevin Manley, his crew, the boatman Ethan Crombie and the crane operative Bill Shoreham, but it could be a member of the sailing club. Richard Bolton, the sailing-club secretary, was at work at his printing company all afternoon. But now that we’ve got Salacia’s real name, and her most recent one, we can see if there is a connection between her and any of the sailing-club members.’
‘Including the Chief Constable and councillor Levy,’ Uckfield said pointedly.
Horton thought he saw an expression of horror flit across Bliss’s thin face.
Uckfield rose. ‘Right. We dig deeper on Foxbury. Eames, you and Marsden find out where Foxbury was Thursday night between eleven p.m. and two a.m. and on Tuesday afternoon and evening. And we want the names of alibis this time and we
Horton would have preferred having a go at Harry Foxbury, but he was curious to meet Garvard and to find out more about Sharon Piper. He called Elkins and asked him to pick him up from the quay at the Continental Ferry Port. As he headed there he chewed over the new facts that had come to light. They still hadn’t traced Sharon Piper’s entry into the country. He was convinced she’d come from abroad and it sounded highly probable that she’d come from the Continent. As he swung into the ferry port it suddenly struck him. God, what an idiot, and not just him, it had been staring them all in the face and no one had thought of it. Salacia hadn’t flown in and neither had she come by private boat. She’d caught the ferry.
He brought the Harley to a stop at the quayside where the police launch was waiting, retrieved his phone and called Trueman.
‘Check the passenger lists of the ferries from France and Spain. I think you’ll find Sharon Piper booked on one that arrived some time just before her aunt’s funeral. She probably travelled under the name of Carol Palmer, but she might have used her real name. It’ll be interesting to see if she came by car and if she booked a return passage.’
‘I’ll get on to it now.’
Horton headed out of the harbour on the police launch. It had grown overcast but the heat was as oppressive as ever. Elkins foretold a thunderstorm. ‘I always get a headache when thunder’s on its way,’ he grumbled, ‘and I’ve got thumping great one now.’
‘And there’s me thinking you were some kind of weather guru.’ Horton asked if there had been any movement from Ballard.
‘Still in the marina at Guernsey on his boat.’
Or at least his boat was, thought Horton. Ballard could be anywhere on that island, which was smaller than the one they were heading towards across a darkening grey and eerily calm Solent. He turned his thoughts to Foxbury. If Reggie Thomas wasn’t their killer could it be Foxbury? He couldn’t see how Foxbury could have got that photograph to Woodley, unless he knew a relative of an inmate, and that was possible. And the motive for wanting Sharon Piper dead? Perhaps she’d seen him up to some illegal activity in his boatyard years ago; Danby had mentioned he’d once been suspected of smuggling. And perhaps Sharon had returned to blackmail him, especially since he’d come into a great deal of money. But why kill her at his old boatyard? Why not take her out on his boat and kill her in a remote bay or toss her body into the sea?
And if Foxbury had killed Sharon out of revenge for her killing Ellie Loman that meant Foxbury must have been infatuated or in love with Ellie. If so why hadn’t Foxbury told the police? Unless Foxbury had killed Ellie because she’d rejected him. Or was there a connection between Foxbury and this Marcus Piper, Sharon’s late husband whom Patricia Harlow had told them had thrown himself off his boat? Had he, though? Had Sharon pushed him and had Marcus been a friend of Foxbury’s?
Whichever way he looked at it the answer lay in Parkhurst Prison. And although it pained him to admit it, as far as the prison being critical to the investigation, DCS Sawyer had been right after all, it was the key to both Woodley’s and Sharon Piper’s deaths. He only hoped that Garvard wouldn’t be as close-mouthed as Stapleton. He wanted the bugger to talk.
